It's really worth to take your time and scrwall through these tousands of templates before you decide which one you want. You will realize very soon, that there are variuos different approaches. One important aspect are the functionalities provided by the single template. What parameters can be configured, where are the module positions, are there different module designs included etc. You will than also see, that nowadays most of them offer some ajax gadgets as well, as some of them include some additional components to the template, for example images sliders, xml-flash headers and so on. Than of course on the pure level of design, you will find completely different templates too. Very colourfull or very dry, completelly overloaded or reduced to the max., different types of fonts and icons etc... After a while you will get some ideas, what elements of the different templates you like and focus into some special direction, untill you found the one close to your individual needs and wishes.

 

But the first step is to surf, explore and observate. And to start this journey, I recomand the overview by joomla Themes. If you don't find a suitable template after srcawling through all these links, you will probably have to buil a completally new one all by yourself.